Health
If there is something you’d better not play with, it is health! An incident or an illness is always manageable abroad, but it’s preferable to avoid it upstream. It’s also more reassuring for your family when they know that you took your precautions!
Here is what I prepared:
– Vaccination
After consulting a doctor, we agreed to make the following vaccines:
- Against rabies: 3 injections on D0, D7 and between D21 and D28
- Against typhoid: a single injection
- Against yellow fever: a single injection
- Against hepatitis A: a single injection
I will not do the Japanese encephalitis vaccine, since I won’t be staying during rainy periods in risky areas.
– Pharmacy box
No need to overload with medicines. Wherever you will go, you will find doctors and pharmacies nearby. The idea is to be equipped for the most urgent and sensitive situations. Having a few medications that usually require a medical consultation can help to save time.
So I opted for the following products:
- For belly disorders: Ercefuryl – Immodium – Spasfon –
- In case of infection: Augmentin
- For little pains and sores: Mosquito Repellent – Dressings – Paracetamol – Ibuprofen
- Antimalarial: Malarone as a prevention in case there’s an opportunity to visit a “risky” place.
- Bonus: corticosteroids (Solupred), and a local anti-inflammatory for back and shoulder pain.
Travel insurance
Finding the right formula for travel insurance is a real headache! The multitude of service insurers and services is overwhelming.
After a long research on internet and endless phone calls with the insurers, I opted for VISA travel insurance covering the first 3 months of my travel (thanks to the purchase of my ticket with a Visa Premier credit card).
Indeed, the guarantees are the same or almost as with American Express. Chapka also offers a wide range of services with its Cap Aventure formula, but it’s more expensive than the others.
I will probably opt for Cape Adventure for the rest of the trip.
Equipment
Preparing your backpack is the most exciting and tricky thing at once! We do and undo our backpack in our heads dozens of times before departure.
Traveling light is a real challenge, something that will certainly come with experience. Think useful not pleasant!
Backpack
I’m taking my Queshua Forclaz 50 L.
In addition to the foam straps on the shoulders, there are also fastenings at the chest and belly to distribute the weight.
It is 62 cm in length, 7 centimeters longer than the maximum length usually allowed for hand luggage. With a smile at the registration desks, you may get away with it.
Clothing
I’m hoping for a pleasant weather during my trip, that’s why I’m traveling light. Yet, I’m bringing pants, a shirt, a long-sleeved thermal T-shirt and an ultra-light jacket to face the cool temperatures in some high altitude areas, where temperatures can quickly drop (in Bolivia for example).
A poncho covering the body and the backpack can also be useful in case of heavy rains!
For the rest, it’s T-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops!
Be careful not to neglect the shoes, as you’ll be wearing them all the time to cover long distances every day.
I opted for 2 pairs of shoes:
Asics Gel Nimbus 19: a pair of ultra-comfortable sneakers to travel the cities daily.
Quechua NH 300: useful for hiking and for some other events
In order to maximize the comfort of both pairs, I changed the soles for Aptonia Walk 500 Full Gel.
Accessories
Money belt
A great resemblance with the belt bag of the 90s, but its flat shape makes it very discreet. It is worn under the T-shirt, ideal for transporting your papers and money safely.
Sleeping bag
Since I’m not necessarily planning to do a lot of camping, I hesitated a lot to take or not a sleeping bag. Although I may not use it too much, I still bring an ultra-light Forclaz bag. Its weight is reasonable, and it can be useful during hyper-air-conditioned bus journeys or in hostels with a poor clean bedding.
GoPro
I take a GoPro Hero Session. It isn’t the most recent GoPro model but this gadget has everything to be the ideal companion for my various getaways. Its image quality is good, it can take videos and photos in HD, has a burst mode and a timer. The absence of a screen in this model makes it small (transportable in the pocket) and waterproof up to 10m under water without a case.
I’m taking it with a tripod, a fixation to the chest, one on the head, and a float so I don’t lose it during a swim or a dive.
Phone
As the GoPro will not always be with me, I thought I’d bring a phone with a good image quality camera instead of a trendy phone I’d be afraid to lose or break. The storage capacity and the number of SIM cards are the other parameters to take into account when making your choice.
Thus, I opted for the Wiko U Feel Lite.
It is lightweight, and a dual SIM phone (one for my usual line and another for a local SIM to make national calls if needed and to have mobile data). Its 8 MP camera is not very responsive but the result is still quite good.
Finally, it offers the possibility to add a memory card up to 64 GB.
E-reader
Even if traveling pushes you to be more open, sociable and make incredible encounters, such an adventure also means being alone at times.
And to spend hundreds or even thousands of hours in transport, airports, or border posts, there’s nothing better than reading to escape for a moment and have good company.
My traveling companion will be a Kindle Paperwhite!
IT
In order to manage photos, videos, and enrich the blog, I will be bringing an old Dell mini-laptop and an external hard drive with a comfortable storage capacity (250 GB).
Bonus
- An inflatable pillow and a night mask for the comfort of the head and eyes during long journeys.
- A flashlight for hiking at dusk.
- A waterproof bag covering the backpack in case of rain
- An universal plug adapter to get electricity wherever I’ll go
- A padlock to secure my backpack
That’s it; now let’s try to put all this in a 50L backpack !!